The Wonder Women Podcast with Ria Hebden Ria Hebden

From achieving a degree in Biochemistry to becoming one of the world's first ever female Master Distillers at G&J Distillers which is part of the international spirits group Quintessential Brands, Joanne Moore is truly a master of her craft. In this month’s Wonder Women Podcast, Ria talks to Joanne who describes herself as an “accidental distiller” but while she may not have had her career all planned out initially, Joanne's success in a male-dominated industry speaks for itself, proving that you can achieve a fulfilling and rewarding career by working hard and following your passion.

The first step to Joanne's success, was when she secured work experience with G&J Distillers whilst at university, this set her up for her first job in distillery, starting off as Quality Controller in the quality lab, where she would test raw materials and finished products. Joanne then quickly rose up the ranks to become Quality Manager, which flourished into 11 wonderful years in the drinks industry before becoming Master Distiller and the first ever female distiller since the company was founded in 1761!

By embracing her flair and passion for creating lovely tasting gins, Joanne is now responsible for the creation of four international gins: BLOOM, Berkeley Square London Dry, Opihr Oriental Spiced Gin and Thomas Dakin Gin and for the distillation of Greenall’s The Original London Dry Gin, as well as a number of other brands. Whether you are interested in studying biochemistry or keen to learn what career paths are available in the drinks industry, this month’s Wonder Women podcast is packed with nuggets of advice from Joanne who shares some of the challenges she faced early on in her career and why she thinks more women are joining the drinks business today. There's also an abundance of top tips for creating a better work-life balance and advice on leadership and how best to lead a global team. So why not grab yourself a beverage and have a listen now. Cheers!

If you are thinking of starting your own business, here's some great practical advice from the award-winning entrepreneur, and Founder of Don’t Buy Her Flowers, Steph Douglas whose thoughtful gifting company thrived during the height of the pandemic - with revenues up by 600% on the previous year! In this month's fascinating episode, Steph tells Ria what it was like to have her business expand so rapidly - literally overnight - and how she dealt with it not just logistically, but emotionally during such bizarre times.

Don’t worry, this isn’t just a great listen for entrepreneurs or those interested in business. Steph shares some valuable life hacks for achieving work and life balance; a different approach to securing a mentor and how to maintain relationships if you work with friends or family.

Interestingly, prior to setting up her own business, Steph worked in Branding and Marketing in government communications and worked on a number of exciting campaigns which included; Join the Army, Stop Smoking and the iconic London Olympics. Trust us when we say, you don’t want to miss this great episode!

Sarah Asante was the first ever black, female Commissioner in BBC history and is now an award-winning Commissioning Editor at the multi-channel broadcaster, UKTV where she’s responsible for seeking out, developing, commissioning and executive-producing, scripted comedy shows for Dave and Gold. Sarah joined UKTV from the BBC where she commissioned the cult-hit sketch show FAMALAM along with comedy pilots, Dreaming Whilst Black, Behind the Filter and Fully Blown.

Throughout Sarah's career she's also had a variety of roles in the BBC’s comedy team as a Development and Digital Content Editor, before moving into Commissioning and prior to that, she spent over a decade working in commissioning teams across Factual and Entertainment at Fox International Channels, Scripps Networks, ITV and Channel 4.

In this fascinating episode, Sarah shares how throughout her career, she has always confidently put herself forward for roles in TV because she knew her worth and valued her own expertise and how working in an all-female team at ITV inspired her, along with some top tips on how best to pitch to comedy commissioners! Sarah’s also a member of the BAFTA TV Committee and acts as the diversity lead for new writer initiatives at UKTV, so grab yourself a notebook and pen, because this one’s a goody!

In this month’s Wonder Women podcast, Ria talks to Fozia Khan, Development Executive at Amazon Studios who recently left the documentaries department at Channel 4 Commissioning to work in Unscripted. Armed with a wealth of experience working on ground-breaking documentaries such as 24 Hours in Police Custody, Damilola: The Boy Next Door and Is Covid Racist? Fozia’s impressive portfolio and extensive background in programme-making working alongside Patrick Holland at BBC Two and at The Garden Productions where she produced Posh People and Extremely British Muslims make this episode about her incredible career a fascinating listen. As people who work in TV, digest the many discussions that took place in this year’s Edinburgh TV festival, Ria asks Fozia about the top issues affecting women in TV - as a senior leader in the industry; a mother and a woman of colour, what needs to change to truly achieve more diversity at senior leadership level and what are the advantages that come with working for a streaming video on demand service compared to a traditional, linear television broadcaster? Sit back, grab a cuppa and be inspired. Fozia is mixing things up in TV and we're excited to see it!

Vikki Stephenson is a Senior Creative, Consultant and Speaker with over 20 years experience, making award-winning campaigns, for the BBC’s highest profile brands such as Planet Earth II, Panorama, CBeebies, EastEnders and most recently, Dracula. Her work has been recognised internationally, winning over 35 industry awards - many since becoming a mum and working part-time. She’s interviewed some big names in her career including Sir David Attenborough and Hans Zimmer, plus she's also recently created a new podcast, Blue Mumdays which supports women going through postnatal depression which offers support to partners, friends and families who are also affected. In this episode, Vikki talks to Ria about the importance of brands not paying lip-service to diversity as businesses restructure in a post-Covid world and why it's vital women speak up for themselves and their achievements, to get ahead in their careers.

Angela Ferreira is a formidable woman. She's an internationally award-winning television producer with over 20 years’ experience working across several genres that include; Scripted, Entertainment, Daytime, Children’s, Music and Reality and she currently heads up Lenny Henry's indie, Douglas Road Productions as the Managing Director. As one of the most experienced and respected executive producer's in the British TV industry, there aren't many people who haven't had the pleasure of working with Angela. In this month's episode of the Wonder Women podcast, Angela shares anecdotes from her colourful career with Ria along with her thoughts on the importance of choosing creative projects that are connected to your interests and passions. Grab a cuppa and enjoy your monthly dose of inspiration!